Must Have Gear for Every Musician

Most musicians are adamant about the gear they have and the gear they want. We all love to talk about the latest and greatest stuff, but there are a couple pieces of gear that every musician should own and use everyday. These may not be flashy or exciting but they all have a specific purpose and go a long way into making you a much better musician.

The Practice Workbook

Most musicians I know don't have one of these. They might have a list of things that they're working on and that's about it. It's imperative that you have all of your notes and practice material in one place. I find that the best solution for me is the practice binder. I use a binder because I find it easiest to make notes, rearrange, add and take things out. You may want to use your computer or your own system. It doesn't matter as long as it works for you. Simplicity is best here. You can have different sections for different things you're working on. You may want to make a section at the beginning and make a list of your goals. There's no use in getting a great practice schedule going if you're not going to have goals. These don't have to be huge 'going to be a rock star' goals but simple goals. Examples would be learning all of your major scales. learning a new style, or mastering a new technique. That way you don't pick up the instrument everyday wondering what you're going to work on next. Put all of your relevant material in your binder. Make sure everything is right there were you need it so you don't have to stop in the middle of your practice session to go looking for something. If there's something that you want to learn, put it in there. If you have any special reference material , put it in there. Following a good method/program or putting together your own would be a great thing to add along with your own exercises.

Make notes everyday on what you've done and what you need to do next. Also. list all of the reference materials and books that you need. Have notes on what you would like to learn, what you need to get, and what progress you've made. 

A Metronome

Ok, so it's not very exciting. A tiny box that just ticks away. No beats, no bass lines or shiny buttons, just a ticking box. The truth is, every musician should spend some time practicing with a metronome. The value of a metronome is that it doesn't fill in any of the holes. You are required to play the notes in between the beats...in time. Some people call it a crutch but it only becomes a crutch when you've come to a certain level; before that, it's invaluable. Try practicing all materials with the metronome at a variety of speeds. It's surprising to find it's much harder to play some materials at a very slow tempo.


It's important that you practice with the metronome and without it. Play your scales or a song with the metronome and then try to keep the same tempo and feel without it.

A Recorder

There's nothing like recording yourself as a record of how you're doing and what needs to be fixed. It's hard to gauge how well you're doing something when you're right in the middle of it all. This is where recording your progress comes in. It's great for listening to yourself and scrutinizing your playing. You should try and record all facets of your practice sessions; everything from scales to technique exercises. Other ideas would be to record jams, rhythm exercises, song ideas, and of course performance pieces. I also have a recorder that I carry around with me to capture any writing ideas that may pop up.

Music/Instrument Stand

This goes with having your own space for your practice sessions. Even if you don't read music (if you don't, you should add it to your list), you should have a music stand placed right in front of your practice space. Place your instrument right next to it on it's stand, ready to play. If you must keep your instrument in its case, have the case next to the stand. All materials that you need for your practice (i.e. music books, method books, practice notes) should be open on the stand. I also have a small table right next to the stand that has my recorder, metronome, tuner etc.

Music/CD Player

Another item that should be right beside your work area. This has a couple of functions. First, it's great for reference. Take the time to listen to recordings of material while you're working on them. There are many things that the printed page just can't convey and having the recorded version right there is critical. Secondly, the player is useful if you have jamming tracks or beats you've created to jam along to. If you're using an mp3 player, make sure it's hooked up to a stereo; headphones* just get in the way.

*If you live in an apartment or have little ones, this may not be a choice. For you folks, being organized is even more important if you want to get some quality practice time in.

Drum Machine/Jam Tracks

Have some jam/backing tracks to play along with. This can be anything from backing tracks (e.g. karaoke), to jamming software (Band-in-a-Box), to play-along CD's (e.g. Jamey Aebersold). It's important that if you're working on a certain style, that you have rhythms in that style to jam to. There are some products out there (drum machines, accompaniment keyboards, jamming software) that allow you to pick your style/key and it will provide a track for you. There are also some method books that go into detail on how to play certain styles that also include a play-along CD. Having separate rhythm tracks or a stand alone drum machine are also great to have ready to go. It's important to practice with just a drum beat or rhythm track if you're trying to groove with the rhythm section (or if you're part of the rhythm section).

All In One

Some of you might be thinking that you could probably have all of these things right on your computer and have done with it. There are free metronomes online that you can install on your computer. You could have your work/practice regimen on your computer along with all of your jamming tracks. I have found that this is not a good idea. Having all of your items on your computer actually becomes counter-productive because you will have to go looking for things just to use them. It's better to have a separate system set up just for practice. It's fine to assign your computer one task (like using it for jam tracks or using it as your recorder) but using it for too many tasks starts to get in the way of our purpose. I keep my notes and materials in a separate binder because it's there, open all the time, ready for me to add things, make notes and check my progress. I use my laptop for jamming tracks but when I find one I really like, I make a CD so I can access it over and over without having to load up a program or go looking for it on my already overloaded laptop.

Keep It Simple

That's it. Not too exciting but I'm always amazed at how many musicians don't have these essential pieces of gear. You also want to have all of the essentials for your particular instrument (picks, strings, rosin, etc.) right there just in case. The point is you want to have all of these items in arms reach so you can just pick them up and get to work. You don't want to be searching your documents, going online, wondering what you did last session, looking for lost CD's, or anything like that when you're right in the middle of your practice session. It's important to get to work and have as few distractions as possible. Have all of the items separate like I've listed above so as soon as  you sit down to practice, it's all there ready to go. No excuses. No interruptions. Nothing getting in the way of you, your music and most of all, your progress.

The Problem With Perfectionism

More than any other group, artists are known for over the top perfectionism. We all know the story of the tortured genius being held ransom by their own genius and perfectionism. It's held like a badge of honor that we all aspire to. It's the mark of a true artist and genius. It denotes quality, hard work and always expecting the best. These are honorable traits no doubt, but perfectionism isn't always a good thing. Perfectionism may be responsible for more failures than any other trait.

Perfection as we all know is a mirage. It's not real. There is no perfect in the real world. For every living organism there are faults. Some say that the beauty is in the faults. Perfectionism is in the eye of the beholder. Therefore it's entirely dependent on an external filter. An object's inherent beauty comes from the beholder and not the object itself. Some people find beauty in the most odd things. The things you find beautiful and perfect may be horrible to someone else. Some like rock, some like classical. Some people find noise beautiful some love the sound of the violin. It's all in the eye of the beholder.

There is a difference when you are the creator. In this way you have control over the 'beauty' of the object. In this way, there is the tendency or at least there is the option that you can always make the object 'more beautiful' or 'just better'. If the goal is to make the object or outcome as good as possible, what's the problem?

The problem is perfect is imaginary. The perfect object or creation doesn't exist. More importantly, what seems perfect today can appear to be imperfect tomorrow. To some there is the idea that no matter what, any object can be improved and 'made better'. In this way the creation is actually never done. It's never good enough. It never sees the light of day. There are some creators that do let their work out into the world. Yet for perfectionists, the work still isn't done. The work is never done. Even when the world has declared their love for the creation, the work still isn't done.

The worst side of this is when the work never gets done. The work never actually becomes good enough for public consumption. This is the biggest pitfall of perfectionism. The work is never good enough.

Being a perfectionist is supposed to help the artist in the creative process. It helps artists separate the great from the crap. It makes them question what they have created and wonder if there is a better way. If this helps make the art better, then it's a good thing. If it stops the art from ever getting finished, it's a bad thing. If it comes to the point where the artist no longer creates, then this is the worst thing.

In actuality, it is true that a lot of works could be improved upon. There are works earlier in an artists career that don't stand up to their later works. There are points in every artists careers where the work isn't as good as others. This is all part of the process. That's the point. You must create these 'points' or works of  art to signify your progress. If you've created something and it's not up to your standards, ask yourself why. Look at your art and see how you can improve and what you may have done wrong. Do you lack talent, need more training, or need more time on that particular skill?

Whatever you do, don't throw it away. It's there to teach you something. It's part of your journey. If you're assessing something right after it's been completed, are you being completely impartial to what you're seeing (hearing)? Finish it, wait a while and then look upon it with fresh eyes. Can you make some minor adjustments? Is it good for what it is? Is it a major piece/accomplishment or another step in your development?

If perfectionism keeps you on top of your game. If it's responsible for your high level of creativity, then that's great. If it's getting in the way; stopping you from creating, making projects take years instead of weeks, stopping you from being happy with your art, then lose it. Lose it now.

Create it, critique it, edit it, finish it, move on.

New Year's Resolutions for Musicians

It's that time of the year again. As you can tell from the posts on all of your favorite development blogs, the topic this month is New Year's resolutions. Some people love it, some will have nothing to do with it all, but most people will at least try something. I, for one, like it because it gives me a chance to start fresh. It also gives me an excuse to look at the past year and take stock of what I've done and what I'd like to accomplish.

Make the List

For most musicians out there, I'm sure that there is at least one music related resolution one your list. It may be getting better at your instrument, writing more songs, or getting some well deserved income from your music. Even if you don't have any music related goals on your list, it is a good time to take a break from your practice sessions and take stock of where you are. It gives you a chance to take a good look at what you've accomplished in the past year and what you'd like to get done this year.

No Time

I hear some players say that their instrument or their music is just a part time thing. They may not have the time (or even inclination) to do much more than 'fool around' on their instrument when the mood strikes. I know tons of musicians who have lost interest in playing or 'hit a ceiling' and can't see their playing getting much better. It's sad because there really is no such thing as a 'ceiling' in music. Music is, or at least can be, a never ending journey. It's all up to you. The fact that they have lost interest may be related to the fact that they're just been going through the motions for the longest time; there has been no growth, effort or motivation to do much more.

The Big Picture

Sitting down to figure out where you are with your music has a two-fold effect. First of all, not only does it gives you a clear picture of where you want to go, it also may enlighten you as to where you are now in your development. This may seem incredibly obvious but you'd be surprised how many musicians I know have never done this. I never did it until I went to university. It's almost like it's a bad thing or uncool for musicians to be practical and studious about their development. Secondly, it's a great motivator. Just thinking about all of the songs that you want to learn, the skills you want to master, or the things you want to do with your music may spark a whole new chapter in your development.

Storming Your Brain

Schedule yourself a brainstorming session. You don't have to make it very long, it's all about just writing down what comes to mind. You'll be editing and sorting the lists and ideas later. Sit down and ask yourself some questions. What tunes do you know? Do you have a list or is it all in your head? More importantly, how many songs do you know all the way through, by heart? How many chords do you know? Have you been playing the same chords in exactly the same way for years? How are your improvisation skills coming along? (Please don't tell me that you can't improvise, everybody can!). Is your technique getting better? When was the last time you wrote a song? You may realize that you haven't really improved much or gotten much done in a long time. This may not be a bad thing if it motivates you to get something done. Just sitting down and brainstorming may bring up tons of new ideas to apply to your practice sessions.

Here are some ideas for your brainstorming session. Get some paper and a pencil. I prefer a pencil for these sections for quick (short) edits. Section off one piece of paper and put down the following areas. Theory, songwriting, technique, and songs. The theory section will include all of the things you know about music theory including: scales, chords, arranging, ear training, etc. Put down all of the areas you'd like to get better at. The songwriting area could include: recording, improvising etc. The song list would be all of the songs you know and then a list of all of the songs you want to learn. In your technique section list all of the different styles and techniques you'd like to master. Make another section for overall notes. Now just start writing ideas down. Make a list of what you know and what you'd like to learn. The order doesn't matter. If you are working on your song list and then have an idea of some technique you'd like to learn, write it down right away. Later you're going to keep these pages and put them into your practice binder/workbook. We've talked about the workbook before where you place all of your notes and ideas for your music and practice sessions.

Once, Twice...

I do this every time I get a new student. You figure out what the student knows, what their taste in music is, and what they would like to learn/accomplish. You should too. It shouldn't be just a once a year thing. It should be like planning other parts of your life career. There are a couple of major planning/review sessions a year. But then there should also be a small review at the end of the week or at least once a month.

Worth the Cost

You may be sitting there thinking that this may be too much. Your music is part time and/or just for fun and you don't have time for all of this. In actuality the amount of effort is minimal. It will take extra effort but not much. In the end you want to enjoy your music and ultimately you want to improve. Sitting down to figure out where you are only takes about as long as a regular practice session.

The enjoyment of music not only comes from playing and jamming but from creativity and growth. This tiny bit of extra effort has a huge payoff. I'm always amazed (and so are the students) at the results after just a short time of concentrated practice. Keep in mind this isn't much more beyond their typical commitment. It's just a matter of concentrated effort. It's a matter of thinking about what you're doing when you sit down to practice. It's a matter of getting organized with your practice sessions. This includes going through a number of exercises every session. It includes monitoring your sessions and making sure that you're doing the exercises and reviewing your results. It's a matter of making an effort to memorize and learn new songs. It's trying new chord progressions, scales and ideas. A small amount of consistent, concentrated effort can have tremendous results. Part time student or not, this can only make your time with your instrument that much more enjoyable and satisfying.

Composing Music: Different Approaches

When I tell people I’m a musician, a lot of people usually ask me the same questions. The first thing they ask is the name of my band. It seems that to most people, that is pretty much all there is to being a musician. When I tell people I’m a composer a whole new set of questions arise. Most of them are completely in the dark about composing music. Composing music to most people, even some musicians, seems to be part genius and part magic. The truth is that composing is like any other skill a musician has. It’s a skill (or a muscle as I call it), that must be developed. The best thing for you to do if you want to become a better composer or writer is to simply start writing.

Just Do It

Yes, my first piece of advice is to simply start. This isn’t like jumping out of a plane; there is very little risk of bodily harm here. When I teach students I notice there are two general replies when I ask them to write a song (or improvise). Most students don’t know what to do or where to start. Even when they are given specific guidelines, there is still a lot of resistance. If I give them a simple exercise to strum some chords, or play a scale, there is no problem. As soon as I ask them to play the scale again but change it anyway they like, they usually give me an odd look and ask for more instruction. There seems to be part of our mindset thinking that we must know a set of rules before creating anything. I tell students that as soon as they pick up the guitar, they can make music. I encourage all of my students no matter what their age or ability to write and improvise. The only difference is the level of material being studied. For as long as I took guitar lessons, not once did the teacher ask me to take what they had given me and change it and make it my own. I wasn’t asked to make up my own compositions until I attended college! Why aren’t we asked to compose music from the very beginning? Why are we not given a bit of theory and then asked to compose upon that? There is no good reason not to do this.

The Approach

So you want to compose music but you don’t know where to start. There are many approaches. If you’re a serious writer I recommend trying them all at one point or another. I’m going to outline a couple of approaches here. Later we’ll get into specific songwriting and composition exercises. I do all of these exercises (approaches and methods) on a regular basis. Yes, these are exercises just like there are warm-ups, scales and chords to learn.

First off, let’s just run off a bunch of different ways composers going about creating music:

a) First and foremost, there’s the bang it out on piano, guitar (whatever your instrument) approach. This is the number one approach for many reasons. It’s usually a good idea (but not imperative) to write on a guitar or piano where you can play the melody and harmony at the same time. The parts you come up with will then be applied to the various instruments in your arrangement.

b) There’s the beat/groove approach were the song or melody is written to a groove or drum loop. This approach is effective because the groove is a prime consideration right off. It can also be advantageous because the melody isn’t reliant on a preconceived chord progression (more on this later). The lyrics and song are then written over top the groove.

c) There’s the lyric approach where the lyric is written alone without any melody, harmonies or groove. While not as popular as it used to be, it’s a good idea to work on lyrics aside from the song as a way to hone your lyric writing skills.

d) There is the loop approach where the music is entirely written based on pre-recorded loops and it’s just a matter of arranging and manipulating those loops. This has taken over in the past decade with all of the different hardware and software products available. This is different from b) because this is writing an entire song just by manipulating sounds and not writing a song (with lyrics and/or an instrument) over top.

e) Lastly there is the hum method. This is simply the matter of humming a melody or idea usually into a recorder to be applied to instruments and an arrangement later. As silly as this sounds, there have been a couple of notable composers and writers in the past that were well known for this method.

f) And of course, there is the application of all or any of the above in any combination.

The Method

Beyond these approaches, there are different methods to writing:

a) There is the search and destroy method. This involves just sitting at your instrument and banging out ideas without really knowing what you’re doing. It’s a matter of literally searching in the dark and waiting until you hit upon something that strikes you. The basis to this is that the musician usually has a basic knowledge of the style and their instrument. It’s a matter of searching to find something that strikes them and sounds like the thing that they’re looking for.

*This may not be the most efficient but it’s a great way to break the rules...mostly because you may not know what the rules are!

b) There is the preconceived form, style approach. This is the methodology used by musicians whereby the form, style and/or progression are set beforehand. The artist writes based upon that form, progression or rhythm. Examples of this would be:

• following the form (e.g. a 12 bar blues, the AABA form in jazz, the rondo, the sonata-allegro form etc.). This would be used in writing jazz tunes, blues, classical pieces and certain styles of folk music.
• following harmonic rules (as in the changes and turnaround in the blues, the changes in flamenco palos) 
• following preset rhythms and/or patterns. This would include a number of dances (waltzes, tangos, mazurkas etc.), the compas in flamenco music and Indian ragas. 

c) There is the musical/theoretical/ education approach. This is the approach whereby the musician studies the rules and theories behind the music and seeks to master that style. The musician would study other musicians’ techniques, the history and theories behind the style. This approach is used in most jazz and classical programs whereby the student is immersed in the study of music theory, history and technique. The point is to master the style while creating a voice of their own. This is basic approach to all education programs but also to a lot of musical traditions including jazz, flamenco, classical music, film scoring, etc.

*Even though most pop and rock musicians don’t realize it, they too follow rules about chord changes, form and rhythm patterns. The only difference being that these usually aren’t a consideration right off. Most pop music is written in the same forms, with rules involving chord changes and rhythm patterns. As soon as you fit your music into a general style, you are automatically following the rules for that genre. For example the diminished chord is used a lot in jazz and classical music but almost never in pop. The snare on the 2 and 4 is pretty much a given for most pop music…More on this later.

d) There is the study of composition. This differs with c) in that it involves deliberately writing for different styles. It is study in composition for its own sake and not a study of a particular style. For example if you were writing a dance tune your approach would be different than if you were writing a folk song. There are certain methodologies, theories and logics involved when writing in the different styles. For example when writing the folk song in the former example, you would probably spend a lot more time on the lyric than on the chord progression or arrangement. You may want to stick to traditional folk chord progressions and arrangements to keep it authentic so the listener would focus on the message and not the instrumental performance. It would be different than writing a head for a jazz tune where the harmonic progression would have a lot more importance. You would want to write something that jazz lovers would find interesting and not something trite or too clichéd.

e) Lastly there is the color, manipulation method. This is different from the first in the fact that it’s usually more about manipulating sounds and grooves. Here the writer doesn’t have any idea what they’re looking for and are just ‘throwing things together’ to see what fits. There are two categories like this because there is basic difference in the methodology here. The writer isn’t looking for preconceived methods and progressions and looking for something unknown.

All of The Above

We’re going to look into each of these different approached and methods one at a time and see what each has to offer and the problems inherent in each. If you are serious about writing you should take a look at each of the styles and see how they work for you. Most of the time you’re going to use the one approach to writing. This is good most of the time but the other methods may be useful to either get you out of a rut, stir your creative juices or to simply go somewhere you’ve never gone before.

Composing Music: Kill The Editor

Do you have a hard time coming up with ideas? How about having one of those sessions where nothing seems to work and all that comes out is crap? Do you have problems finishing projects? Do you start new projects with tons of energy but lose interest fast? Does it take you forever to finish songs?

If this is you, it may be because of your own inner editor that's inside us all. 


You inner editor may be killing your creativity.

Useful, Mostly

We all have an editor inside us. It's a very useful skill in most situations. It's the little person inside you that tells you when something might not be appropriate and stops you from making a fool of yourself. Most of the time the editor is quite useful if not essential to our wellbeing. For a lot of artists however, their inner editor is they're greatest enemy.

In art, it's imperative that we have this editor. Your inner self will question what you've done. It'll ask questions and cause doubt. It'll criticize and evaluate. These are all useful actions...to a point. The problem arises when you allow the editor in too early in the process. There is also the problem when you give the editor too much power and authority. The editor isn't playful and takes things way too serious. When you're trying to be creative, this isn't helpful.

The Exception?


Some people don't seem to have any editor at all. These are the people you meet who may be slightly delusional and no matter what people say, can't seem to see any fault in what they do or say. These are the people who can't take any criticism. When they do get some, they look at it as a personal attack and don't take any of it to heart. These are the people you see on 'American Idol' who are astonished and amazed when they are told that they don't have any talent; yet it seems completely obvious to everybody else.

The Norm?


For many artists though, their inner critic is all powerful. Their inner editor is such a tyrant that nothing they do is enough. No matter how good they may feel about your creations, the inner editor will get in there and tell them that it's terrible. It may not matter how many people tell them it's great, they still hold true to the editor's word. Some artists and writers go through their whole lives tweaking and editing their work until its 'perfect'; i.e.until their editor 'tells' them that it's good. The editor filters and distorts your reality. Sometimes it has great insight. It tells you what is good, what's not and it's spot on. Then there are times that the editor is completely wrong. There are times when the editor has no objectivity and only sees the faults. Unfortunately, since it's our own internal editor, there's no way for us to tell the difference...not at that moment anyway.

Cut It Off At The Pass

The best way to combat the over zealous editor is to completely shut it off...for a while. Shut it off when you want to get your creative work done Don't worry, it'll always come back. There are many ways to do this. One of the best is to simply set a timer and get working. Set the timer for half an hour or something short enough that it's not overwhelming. Then just get to work. Don't let the editor in. You'll know when it tries to get back in. It's that voice inside you telling you that what you're doing is terrible. It may be telling you that it's useless, this is bad, this isn't as good as what you did yesterday, it's too happy (sad, dark, light, whatever), etc. You get the idea. It's pretty much any negative thought. You also have to make sure that you stick to the time you set.. Procrastination can result as a symptom of fear and escape from the editor's harsh negativity. Sometimes that little bugger gets in there before you even start. It's then that it's the most dangerous.

Listen Carefully

Another way to ward off this creativity killer is actually pay attention to it. You know that you want to get the work done but there's something stopping you. Pay attention to what thoughts creep up that stop you from getting started or finishing. What's your internal dialogue? What's that editor telling you. You really have to pay attention to what's going on because the editor can be subtle. It may be giving you excuses like: you're being unrealistic (your work isn't that good), there are lots of people out there who are much better at this than you (so why bother), or your art isn't that important (you should be doing something more important...like vacuuming). These are subversive little things that go on in our inner dialogue killing our creativity and our ability to get the work done.

Take 5

The best way I have of fending off the editor is to take a break. Sometimes in the middle of a piece of work, I would hear my inner editor chirping away telling me how bad this piece was turning out. At that point I would take a break and leave it for a while. If you have one of those long sessions it's a good idea to take breaks. This gives your mind a break; not just a break in doing work but a break in thinking patterns. You'll find that something happens when you take a break and focus on something else for a while (or focusing on nothing at all is just as good). This breaks the patterns in your brain. It's that same as when you do any activity for an extended period of time. Your mind gets into a repetitive state. This is normally good. This is the time when we get ' into the zone' and things just flow. The problem arises when we get into repetitive patterns and we lose objectivity. Our ears and mind also get 'tired'. It's harder to tell when our ears get tired because there aren't usually any obvious tell tale signs. If I've been working on the same area for a long time, I know that I'm no longer being objective and I'll just drop it for the time being. I usually take a couple of short breaks during a session and then make sure I have one long break before making any final decisions. The best break for final decisions is overnight. I'm always amazed at how different the piece sounds the morning after a long session. The problem areas usually jump right out at me. The first listen is usually the best. Take notes.

Sabotage Part 2

Unfortunately, most people remember their failures much easier than they remember their successes. By remembering our failures, we hope that this may prevent us from doing the same in the future. Learning from your mistakes is one thing, but focusing on our weaknesses and failures isn't a great mindset. It sets you up to be defensive and no take chances. I've had students who didn't want to improvise because they didn't want to look bad. They knew that it probably wasn't going to turn out well so that stopped them from trying in the first place. This is part of the editor within us. It will stop us before we even start. It tells you how bad you're going to be before you even start or finish. It's the editor inside us telling us how we messed up. It's the faults and mistakes we hold close. This gives more power to the editor who uses this in it's favor. 'If you had just listened to me (the editor) in the first place...' it tells us.

Important Stuff

You have to make your creative work important; as important as showing up for your 'regular' job or an important appointment. It is an 'important appointment'. If your inner editor is getting in your way, you have to work at getting it out of the way just like you work at your craft. Working on this shouldn't be a full time job though. Work at getting it out of the way and then get to work. Make notes on why you didn't get something done or why you abandoned it before it was done. Listen to your inner dialogue and see if you can find the reasons why your aren't being as creative as you can be. Being creative is like any other discipline, it gets better with practice.

To be creative, you have to be willing to take chances. You have to be willing to fall flat on your face and get up again. You have to try new things even though you may not be sure if it's a good idea or not. Keep in mind I'm talking about creative risks here, these aren't life threatening decisions. At worst you'll feel bad, at best you may create a masterpiece. Trying new ideas, searching for that next great idea is never straightforward. The most important part is keeping the editor in it's place and only allowing it to come in when you ask. It's always a journey. There are going to be wrong turns. Don't stop at the turn before you even get a chance to see what's around the corner.

Practice Doesn't Make Perfect

It's pretty much a universal truth; practice makes perfect. Musicians know all too well that if you want to master your art, there is no substitute for practice. The problem is that this statement is much too vague.

The Blind Leading...

Just blindly practicing without thought can do more damage than good. Thinking that you can just show up and go through the motions can install false hope and produce unrealistic expectations. It also may cause doubt and pain after a huge investment in time and money is made and there are no results or improvement. There are right ways to practice and wrong ways to practice. There are wrong ways to learn and wrong ways to work. You can actually practice hard everyday and not accomplish very much at all. The student who practices wrong may be doing more damage than good; wasting years of time and effort practicing the wrong things over and over. Or, they may be going through the motions of practicing without making any effort or challenging themselves at all. Essentially, it's not enough to just sit down and practice, you must make sure that you are going about it the right way.

Why Are We Here?

While this may seem obvious at the outset, a lot of students will go about practicing without thought to why they are doing it in the first place. Some musicians have the really bad habit of practicing certain skills without too much thought about proper fingering or technique. People like to practice the same material and skills over and over. Learning new skills and keeping yourself challenged takes some discipline. Keeping on track with planning, execution and periodic self assessment is hard. It seems so much easier just to get to it; even when we know better. If may be as simple as not looking forward enough to see how much could be gained by some planning and discipline.


The Two Finger Approach

A lot of the time, making that initial investment seems like more trouble than its worth,. We're simply too lazy, can't be bothered and just want to get down to the task at hand. There are some skills that people don't take the time to learn even though the investment would be quite small in comparison to the time and money saved. The best analogy of this is the simple task of typing. Many people spend most of their day on their computer yet never learn to type. Even though it will save them a huge amount of time in the long run, they never take the time to learn and practice the skill properly. Some people go through an entire lifetime typing with two fingers. If they took the time to learn the skill in the first place, with regular practice they could double their typing speed in a relatively short time. The best part is that this is a skill that will stick with you the rest of your life. With a little concentrated effort and planning you may achieve much more in a significantly less amount of time. When you take the time to learn the proper technique, you will only get better with time. It's a good idea to think about this when planning your practice regimen. Think about what it is you want to learn and how (or who to go to) would be the best way to go about it.

Do You Have One?

First of all, how many musicians do you think actually have a practice regimen? By that I mean a specific time set apart where the musician will sit down and follow a charted course of lessons and exercises. How many musicians a) practice simply when they have a spare moment or just whenever they feel like it? b) actually take notes during their practice sessions? c) record their practice sessions and periodically review their progress? Working at something without actually charting your progress seems ludicrous. Can you imagine practicing a sport without taking the time to measure your progress and results? Yet how many musicians do this? How many musicians take a haphazard approach to practicing, writing, technique and their overall progress? As a student of any other activity, you would never do this.


General Rules

I'm going to go over some general rules to always keep in mind when sitting down to practice. These principles can also be applied to any endeavor which takes daily, regimented action.

Always do the following when sitting down to practice.

• relax and focus on the task at hand
• be mindful about what you're doing and why 
• review what you did in the last session
• plan for the practice session
• work on problem areas
• work on new skills and ideas
• take notes
• stretch and challenge yourself daily
• use a timer
• include warm ups and fundamental exercises
• make notes for next session
  

While this may seem like it would be a chore to do and hard to implement, it's actually like most other learned behaviours. Once you do it a couple of times, it becomes easier to do. After an extended period of time it will become automatic. It actually saves a lot of time and takes a lot of the guess work out of what you're trying to do. It's easier to stay on track because it's all right in front of you. There is little guess work. It may be hard for a lot of easy going, artistic personalities to get into such a regimen but once you stick with it for a while and start seeing results quite quickly, your attitude may change.

The Big Review

You're going to have to sit down periodically and do an overall review. These reviews serve two purposes. First of all it gives you a good idea of what you've done and what you want to accomplish. That way you can make sure that you're working on things that are going to get you where you want to go. With music, there are so many skills and things to learn that it becomes easy to work on many different things. It's easy to get into a whole set of skills that aren't related to what you wanted to accomplish in the first place. It gives you something to measure as far as seeing if you are actually moving toward your goal.

Secondly it also helps in motivation and keeping on track. It's all too easy to lose your place or even worst, lose your motivation when practicing. This after all, is just you. You have to try and be objective about what you've learned and if you're making any progress. If you've taken the time to write down what you want to accomplish, you can later go back and see if you've done what you've set out. A lot of the students I have taught get excited when they see the results in their playing. Sometimes, it's as simply as recognizing a chord progression on the radio, but once there are measurable results, it gives up the motivation to stick with it. There are always periods of what seems like no growth at all but then there are always moments of a-ha where you realize that have improved or accomplished something significant.

The Big Plan

One of the things that's important to do before you even start a practice regimen is figure out what it is you want to accomplish. Write down what specific skills you'd like to learn and what the big plan is. It should be within a given time frame. This could be a year or 6 months or even 3 months. Don't worry about being too accurate with your time frame if you're just starting out with a new skill. For a beginner this would include learning to play an instrument for an intermediate musician, it may be earning to write a symphony. You won't know how long this is going to take. As you get going with your regimen though, you should do a review after a couple of months. From this you will be able to tell if you're improving and it may give you a better idea of your time frame and how long it may take to learn a new skill.

Check, Check

You must make sure that you are checking your results and always striving to get better. It's possible to keep going over the same things and think that you are practicing but you're not. This is when people seem to hit that 'ceiling' and can't seem to improve. When learning new skills you may have to get 'worst' before you get better. There's the idea that mastering a skill takes 10 years but it's possible that you could work on something for a decade or more and see very little results. It's also possible for someone with a set plan, with the right materials and work ethic, to master something in a fraction of that time.

Working Solo: R&D

Last time we talked about some of the problems with goals setting and planning when working on your own. When you're a musician most of the time you're going to be on your own which makes it that much harder trying to get it all done.


What to Do…What to Do

Planning is simply figuring out what’s important, what needs to be done, and how it’s going to get done. The problem with the music industry is that there isn't one way to the top. There are as many ways of getting there as there are musicians. So what do you need to do? What's your first step? What's your next step? What needs to be done first? Of course the answer to any of these questions has a lot to do with where you are now and what you want to accomplish. There is no set approach for artists and musicians; more now than ever since the turn in music industry in recent years.


R&D

You are going to have to spend a part of everyday on career development. Most companies spend a good deal of time (and money) in research and development. As a business, you're going to have to do the same. It’s said that in business that you should be reinvesting a certain percentage of your profits back into R&D; otherwise you become obsolete and die. You need to be doing the same. That means spending time everyday doing some research in figuring out what people in your industry are doing to make it. Much like practicing and working at your craft, this is one of the things that you should be thinking about and working on everyday. How do you go about this? What do you do first? If you’re just starting out, you’re going to have to do quite a bit of research and a lot of trial and error.


This process of research and trial and error never actually ends; you just get better at it.


The ‘R’ Part

For a starting musician (or even if you’re not), you will need to do some research first. Go to your library and take out books. There are tons, pick a couple but don’t just read them, make notes and put some of the ideas into action. This will be the beginning of your master plan. Don’t worry if you’re doing the ‘right’ thing yet. It will become apparent what works and what doesn’t soon enough. Do some research online. Don’t spend too much time on this. You could spend years going through all of the stuff online and end up wasting a lot of time. Do the same process as you did with the books. Take some of the good ideas, print them out on a separate sheet so you can access them anytime. This will get rid of any temptation to do any extra surfing while trying to work on your goals. Make a list of some actionable goals from the ideas you got online and then get out there and do them.


People, Places

Get out there and talk with musicians. This may be your greatest resource. Even if they aren’t ‘rockstars’ yet, that doesn’t matter. Every musician has stories and lessons learned. Remember to take it all with a grain of salt. See what ideas you like and try them out. If you hear one piece of advice over and over; memorize it and learn from it. It may save you a lot of pain later. There is no substitute for real experience but with a little research there won’t be as many surprises. Make no mistake though, there will be surprises!


Always have research and development as part of your to do list. No matter where you are in your path, this always needs to be on your list. This must be an ongoing thing.


The ‘D’ Part

The development part has a couple of areas that needs to be considered. Just putting your research into action is part of your development. Tweaking that research and you master plan is another. Remember we’re talking about career development here and not about your art; development of your art goes is another article entirely. Development in your career also involves networking, administration and of course finances. If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent years working on your craft, leaving the business largely alone. There is no place for this anymore. Just as you work on songwriting everyday, you must work on the development of your career. This means that once the research has been done and you’ve written down some goals, it’s time to see what’s working. Most businesses have a method of measuring if something is successful or not. They measure if it was worth their while and check to see if they can replicate that process. If you can do this, it’s a good idea but a lot of the things that you do in your development wouldn’t be so clear-cut. Sometimes the most unexpected things happen as a result of something that seemed arbitrary at the time. Sometimes upon closer inspection, there things don’t turn out to be as arbitrary as you think. It’s all part of the process.


Anything Happening Yet?

There will be times that you can see a direct result of something that you had done as part of your R&D. This may be getting contacts at a networking event, meeting other musicians at a jam night or simply getting sales from a local gig. When you achieve some success, it’s important to take a second and figure out why. If you can trace your steps back and see what you did and how it resulted in that particular success, you’re more likely to do that again in the future. It simply means that this process or goal works for you and it’s always a good idea to build on successes. A lot of very famous musicians have built a career on making the most out of one or two ‘small’ successes.


Your Career Workbook

One of things that you may want to do right from the outset is put together a career workbook. I have one of these for my practice sessions as well but having one solely for your business, planning, career and PR is a good idea. Once you’ve made a list, put it in there. Any marketing ideas? Put it in there. CD release checklists, networking events, etc. Put it all in there. Some people like to have their workbook on their computer. I personally find a binder much better. I carry it anywhere, doesn’t need any batteries or back up, and I have a hard copy of all of the most important items. This workbook should be opened at least once a day and checked. It’s important that this is a vehicle for action and results; not another system that you spend all of your time on tweaking and updating. It’s a WORK book.


Try and Try Again

If you’re just starting out don’t worry too much about getting it perfect. Check out some of ideas that you’ve found in your research and get started. Keep a list of what you want to do and what you’ve done. If something works, make a note of it. Rework the research and the plan. It’s a work in process.